Fermentation chamber advice

[MikeSkril]

Hi all,

I have a small fermentation chamber where I could fit 4 to 5 carboys. It’s an insulated box in a basement cupboard. I heat it with a can light if needed (STC1000 controller).

I would like to have the ability to cool this box. That is for 2 reasons; I need to cool a few times in summer when fermentation is going crazy and temp is getting a little high. I also want to be able to cold crash.

I was thinking to take an old mini fridge (1.6cuf or so) and pull out the cooling element + compressor.
Did someone do that? Which fridge is good to use? Is it hard to cut out the needed stuff?

Thanks,

 

[broadbill]

Hi all,

I have a small fermentation chamber where I could fit 4 to 5 carboys. It’s an insulated box in a basement cupboard. I heat it with a can light if needed (STC1000 controller).

I would like to have the ability to cool this box. That is for 2 reasons; I need to cool a few times in summer when fermentation is going crazy and temp is getting a little high. I also want to be able to cold crash.

I was thinking to take an old mini fridge (1.6cuf or so) and pull out the cooling element + compressor.
Did someone do that? Which fridge is good to use? Is it hard to cut out the needed stuff?

Thanks,

Plenty of people do this with various sized mini-fridges; I suspect there are varying degrees of success with this approach.

It all depends how large of a fridge you start with, how large of a chamber you are building (or have), and how much you value your time (dissecting the guts from a mini-fridge will take some time as will fitting it to the cupboard)

I don't know the answers to all of these question, but if I were to guess you would probably end up with a chamber with limited functionality. It might be able to hold ale fermentation temps (you are starting with the smallest of the mini fridges after all); there is almost no chance you would be able to cold crash. My experience with that size fridge is they are barely able to hold cold crash temps themselves, let alone a chamber that 20-50 times that size (ie. standard fermentation chamber).

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I agree, if your trying to chill a chamber that big that cold your going to need something more powerful than the compressor from a mini fridge.

Your going to need a freezer realistically to chill such a large thermal mass at any decent rate.

 

[MikeSkril]

Thanks guys!